An Explorative Study on Drought Mitigation Strategies Followed by Farmers in Madurai District

Madurai district in the state of Tamil Nadu used to face frequent drought due to failure of rainfall and less rainy days in monsoon. A notable mention about the severity of drought that occurred during the year of 2019, where Madurai is one among the 24 districts in Tamil Nadu which is declared as drought affected by the State government of Tamil Nadu and hence, adoption of mitigation strategies such as altering the cropping pattern, cropping system, cropping intensity and irrigation pattern etc., has to be followed by the farmers to get away from income loss. To explore the changes, this study was conducted among 40 farmers chosen from 3 different blocks such as Melur, Alanganallur and Chellampatti to know the impact of agricultural drought in the district. The results were found using percentage analysis and it revealed that about 20 per cent of respondents shifted from seasonal crops to annual crops and from double cropping to mono cropping during drought year. It was also observed that drip irrigation (60%) is gaining momentum in recent years due to prevalence of drought. The awareness level on technological mitigation strategies was high related to preserving dry fodder for livestock (100%), drip/sprinkler method of irrigation (100%), moving to less water consuming crops (100%), changing of planting dates (97.50%) and mulching (97.50%). The extent of awareness and availing benefits from the government schemes and policies related to mitigation of drought such as waiving of crop loan in cooperatives, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was found to be higher among farmers.